Great Prayer Festival

This project was implemented to preserve Tibetan folk culture activities that are rapidly vanishing. We thank individuals and organizations who supported us. We also extend sincere appreciation to the United States Embassy in Beijing for sponsoring the project (the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation Program). Finally, we hope more people will join in the important task of preserving a record of traditional culture. Introduction. Friend of Rural Community Development is a local NGO registered in China, whose work focuses on improvement of rural education, culture, and environment. All the staff are locals dedicated to achieveing sustainable development for local people. Mr. Lugyal (Li Jia) is a native of Muhong Village, Daowei Tibetan Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, China. These cultural materials were collected from Xunhua Tibetan communities from 2008-2010. Disc Number 2: Great Prayer Festival. Filmed in Wendu Monastery, the largest Buddhist monastery in Xunhua, and a renowned monastery in Qinghai Province. Tibetan and Chinese descriptions available in 'Xunhua DVD Set Tibetan - description of the 9 DVDs.pdf'

Motivations, Experiences and Potential Impacts of Visitors to a Monastery in New Zealand: A Case Study

This thesis presents a case study of the potential impacts of pilgrimage and religious tourism in a Catholic context, with a focus on the perspectives of visitors and the host monastic community. The selected research site is the Tyburn Monastery, the only monastery and retreat centre in the Hamilton Catholic Diocese in New Zealand. The monastery is situated in the North Island near Rotorua, a tourist destination in New Zealand that is well known for its geo- thermal activity, adventure sports and promotion of the indigenous Maori culture. Specifically, this thesis studies visitors’ motivations and experiences for visiting the monastery, and the potential impact these visitors have on the monastery and on the monastic community. To achieve this end, and adopting a mixed methods research approach, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with visitors who had been to the monastery, from which key themes were elicited, and also a questionnaire based study was conducted with 42 visitors to the monastery. The analysis sheds light on the profile of visitors, the activities in which the visitors participated, and also the visitors’ motives and experiences for the visit. In-depth interviews were conducted with three of the monastic nuns to gain an insight into how visitors potentially impact their monastic life. Most of the visitors were from Hamilton; they were mainly female visitors and over the age of 40 years; they were predominantly day visitors who used their own transport to get to the monastery as there is no public transport available. These visitors were mostly accompanied by family and friends. All the respondents in this study were Catholic. Findings of the qualitative interviews elicited three key motivational themes which were: religious, personal and social motives. Furthermore, the quantitative data revealed the main motives for visiting the monastery were to ‘spend time with God’, ‘to nurture your faith’, ‘and ‘to pray’. Three key experiential themes emerged from the qualitative analysis through the respondents’ narratives of their experiences at the monastery. These were, ‘religious element’ ‘personal experience’ and ‘social setting element’. The monastery significantly influenced the visitors as they expressed that ‘I felt a special spirituality at the monastery’ to be a significant experience. The most popular activities at the monastery, as established from the quantitative analysis, included ‘attending mass’, ‘reciting prayers’ and ‘meditating’. The visitors acknowledged that they were fortunate to be allowed into the monastery, were very satisfied with their visit, and would visit the monastery again. Findings of the interview with three of the nuns at the monastery revealed that all visitors were welcome and are not treated as a burden; in contrast to findings that are perhaps argued in existing religious tourism literature. These findings thereby contribute to the existing scholarly knowledge of how Catholic cloistered monasteries are efficiently managed; this is because of the Benedictine rule that they follow, which lays out principles of governing or administrating and hospitality. The monastery is still new, and limited advertising is done through Catholic magazines and newsletters of the Hamilton dioceses. In spite of this, the monastery receives a number of day visitors, and their retreat rooms also have a high occupancy rate. Care has been taken to insure that visitor numbers do not cause any negative impacts on the monastery environment. In addition, from this research, it can also be concluded that at this monastery there is gender equality, since all visitors are allowed to participate in all the activities of the monastery. This monastery is visited primarily for devotional reasons, as it has no cultural or historical significance unlike the ancient monasteries in Europe and China. The unique experience noted in this research was also because of the rural setting, which therefore could be used to attract international visitors. Essentially, the research findings will aid in the understanding of visitors’ behaviour in relation to religious site management

The Ruins of the Abbey of Fitz-Martin [Transcript]

A corrupt Baron exploits the monks of St. Catherine\u27s monastery by publicizing the acts of one Sr. St. Anna, a nun from the monastery that broke her vow of chastity. Under pressure from the scandal, the monks hand over the monastery to the Baron, who converts it into a secular property that swiftly falls into ruins. Many years later, Thomas Fitz-Martin and his daughter Rosaline, the last descendants of this Baron, move into these ruins and discover that the Baron himself seduced Sr. St. Anna under the name of Vortimer, leading her to her ruin and eventual death. The ghost of Sr. St. Anna haunted the Baron until his own death.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1020/thumbnail.jp

The Thousand-Year Spiritual Tradition of Lesnovo Monastery in Macedonia

Through the rich Christian tradition in Macedonia from the early Christian, medieval and up to the modern period numerous churches and monasteries were built, where all forms of development of spiritual and cultural life took place. A historically remarkable location is Lesnovo Monastery, which has survived until today during almost one thousand years of spiritual and cultural tradition in Macedonia. The oldest indirect and legendary sources point to the conclusion that the original construction of the monastic church in Lesnovo should be moved to the period of the eleventh century, when from 1018 onwards, after the fall of Samuil\u27s Slavic reign on the territory of Macedonia, the Byzantine state, political, and church protectorate was restored. As a consequence of the resistance to the restored Byzantine spiritual protectorate and the suppression of the established Slavic church tradition in this northeastern part of Macedonia, the anachoretic monasticism was revived, and as a reflection of the rising cult to the venerable hermit, St. Gavril of Lesnovo, the Lesnovo monastery was also affirmed. Its history directly reflects all the forms of spiritual and cultural tradition in Macedonia. In 2017, when the jubilee, the fiftieth anniversary of the restoration of the autocephaly of the Ohrid Archbishopric (1967-2017) as the Macedonian Orthodox Church - Ohrid Archbishopric is celebrated, the former abbot of the Lesnovo monastery Father Gabriel of Mt. Athos and Bishop of Velika was canonized as a saint (†12 January 1990). This blessed Christian act enriched the 10-century long spiritual tradition of the Lesnovo Monastery with the glory and honor of the holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, of the venerable hermit Gavril of Lesnovo and of the Holy Bishop of Velika, the venerable Gavril Svetogorac (of Lesnovo)

The Shape of a Benedictine Monastery: The SaintGall Ontology (Extended Version)

We present an OWL 2 ontology representing the Saint Gall plan, one of the most ancient documents arrived intact to us, which describes the ideal model of a Benedictine monastic complex that inspired the design of many European monasteries.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

The Sounds of Vatican II: Musical Change and Experimentation in Two U.S. Trappist Monasteries, 1965−1984

The Second Vatican Council impacted the use of liturgical music within religious communities. Two U.S. Trappist monasteries, New Melleray Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa, and Gethsemani Abbey in Bardstown, Kentucky, evidenced distinctive approaches to the musical freedom resulting from the Vatican II reforms. New Melleray incorporated contemporary folk music and instruments. At Gethsemani, Father Chrysogonus Waddell pioneered the use of Gregorian notation and English psalmody. The musical changes had a profound effect on the Trappists’ celebration of the Mass and the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours

Water Politics and Religious Practices in Kangding

This case study examines the use of water in Kangding, China. Kangding is a location in the Kham Himalaya which for centuries served as a strategic border area between Tibetan and Chinese worlds. As the discussion elaborates, an examination of the way that water has been used in the past and in the present demonstrates the dynamism of the religious practices prominent in locations such as Kangding. The study of water, and of the everyday religious practices with which it is associated, also intersects with growing resource management challenges that have come to the forefront during a contemporary period of development and modernization. I suggest that the recent resurgence of religion could deepen our understandings about local knowledge of the natural environment while shedding light on some ideas about its ideal use